RESIDENTS on a busy road are stepping up their campaign for safer conditions following a freak accident.

An animal trailer crashed through a garden fence at 1 The Green, Reaseheath at Nantwich and into the wall of the property, inches from the front door

Vicky Higham, who was in the front room of her home when the crash happened on Friday morning, said: 'It's a miracle no-one was hurt. It just happened that there was nobody about on the pavement at the time.'

The trailer was being towed by a Land Rover Freelander and became uncoupled before ploughing through the garden.

The driver Keith Gibbons said: 'We had come all the way from Lincoln without any problems. We were just a few yards away from Reaseheath College where we were going to pick up a bull to take back to Lincoln.

'It was just a freak accident, and the good thing is that no-one sustained any injuries.'

Neighbour Fiona Swain has been spearheading a campaign for safer conditions, including a speed limit. She said had the crash happened just a minute earlier her 13-year-old daughter Rebecca might have been killed or injured.

She said: 'She had just come back from the Post Office and would have been walking on the pavement out-side our row of houses.'

There are also other children living in the row and the road, the A51, is constantly used by students crossing to-and-from Reaseheath College.

Mrs Swain said: 'We are constantly having accidents here. In the summer I had an overturned car in the garden and last New Year a couple of cars came through the fence.

'We've had no end of meetings with officials but nothing has been done.'

Mrs Higham said: 'The only speed limit on the road is the national 60mph limit, but that is ridiculous. We feel the 30mph speed limit, which starts further down the road towards the Barony at Nantwich, should be extended past their homes.'

Crewe and Nantwich borough councillor John Beech, who successfully campaigned for safer conditions further along the A51 at its junction with Welsh-mans Lane, said he would raise the matter at the next meeting of the Joint Highways committee in a fortnight.